Facts
On January 6, 1999, the Norwegian insurance company "V. ASA" made a public takeover bid for the shares of the Norwegian bank "Y. ASA", whose value subsequently increased. Prior to this action, on December 23, 1998, Bank B. (Switzerland) AG had purchased 200,000 shares of "Y. ASA", which it partially resold and then repurchased.
On February 9, 1999, the Norwegian Kredittilsynet requested administrative assistance from the Swiss Federal Banking Commission (EBK) regarding these transactions. The EBK obtained additional information and assurances before complying with the request on January 27, 2000 and ordered the release of the documents on the transactions of Bank B. (Switzerland) AG. The information may only be used for the direct supervision of the stock exchanges and securities trading. However, the EBK has already agreed to the possible forwarding of the information from the Kredittilsynet to the competent criminal prosecution authorities.
Considerations
Pursuant to Art. 38 para. 2 BEHG, the EBK can transmit non-public information to foreign supervisory authorities under certain conditions. The information may only be used for the direct supervision of the stock exchanges and securities trading ("principle of specialty") and the recipient authority must be bound by official or professional secrecy ("principle of the long arm").
The Kredittilsynet is the Norwegian supervisory authority for securities trading and can therefore receive administrative assistance. The Kredittilsynet has assured that it will only use the information for the supervision of securities…